Friday, July 23, 2010

FACEBOOK GROUPS have launched a successful campaign to ban what they call "enemies" from the social network by reporting them to the site's administrators. Their main targets are human rights advocates, atheists, and those accused of being "anti-Islam" or simply "too liberal".

Lists of targets are compiled on Facebook itself, in groups like "Pesticide" and "The cleansing bureau". Hundreds of Facebook users are on the lists - especially if they're gay or women who refuse to wear the veil.

The group administrator asks members to alert the Facebook admin to the targets' accounts by signalling them as "fake profiles". And it's working. Hundreds of users, most of them from Tunisia but also elsewhere, have seen their accounts disappear.

That's because if a large enough number of people signal a profile, then it is deleted automatically, without human verification. Facebook, which is currently facing huge criticism for privacy issues, confirmed that the automatic system was in place, after an employee of the American company tested it.

Sarah Ben Hamad works in tourism and writes a blog. Her Facebook account has been targeted several times by deactivation groups.

The people on these lists are often bloggers and intellectuals who are accused of being atheist, pro-Zionist, anti-Muslim activists and homosexual. People of Berber origin are also targeted. The groups are calling for Tunisia and the Maghreb to be 100% Arab and 100% Muslim.

I don't know who's behind these groups; you can't see who the administrator is. I think it's probably easily influenced kids who've got nothing better to do. I'd like to know why people follow their advice without knowing who the people they're targeting are. Is it really a religious fantasy or just an irrational hatred? And why doesn't Facebook notice the unusually high amount of requests coming from them and do something about it?"

Who’s behind the “deactivation groups”

There are a number of hypotheses concerning who might be behind the groups. At first glance it seems to be Islamic fundamentalists. According to new technology blog ReadWriteWeb, however, the Tunisian government may have got involved in a bid to disrupt websites it is not comfortable with.

Getting Through

Click on the book's image to learn more about it.

Take the Pledge

Some people say Islam is a religion of peace and that Islam has been hijacked by extremists, terrorists, and stealth jihadists who twist and distort the peaceful teachings of the Quran and quote it out of context.

Others say that political, supremacist, and even violent teachings are fundamental to Islam, and that people who say otherwise either haven’t read the Quran or are protecting Islam with religious deception (taqiyya).

The general confusion about the nature of Islam makes us collectively unable to make informed decisions. You can help end this confusion by reading the Quran. Stop believing what other people say and find out for yourself.

Many Types of Jihad

The bag of non-violent tactics used by the jihadists is deep indeed. Over the last few decades they have perfected a series of effective Jihads against the non-Muslim world while it slumbered in its politically-correct dream-world. There are many Jihads the Islamists use and they all support their ultimate goal — an Islamic world ruled by Shari'a Law. Here they are: